Pirates on the Chopping Block in China

The Chinese government is cutting half of the scenes featuring Chow Yun-Fat in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End." The actor's screen time was cut to ten minutes due to footage that the official Xinhua news agency called "vilifying and defacing [of] the Chinese."

Zhang Pimin, deputy head of the film bureau of the State Administration of Radio. Film, and Television, told Xinhua that the cuts were done "according to the country's relevant regulations on film censorship" and "China's actual conditions." He has also said that the cuts "will not impair either the continuity of plot or the image of characters."

Among the scenes cut from Chinese screens is one in which Yun-Fat says "Welcome to Singapore," because it supposedly implies that Singapore is a land of pirates.

In spite of the cuts, the film managed to pull in $1.3 million on its opening day in China.